I think the subscription software or software-as-service trend is not much more than a way to increase revenue with no real benefit to the end user. There are some cases where subscription makes sense but for most stand alone software products it's a gimmick (or worse, a scam) IMO.

This is an unfortunate trend that I think will continue to grow. I've seen several smaller and promising software products fail attempting this model. Maybe a larger company like Adobe can pull it off, I hope not because I think this a business model that brings little value for the end user at a potentially much higher cost over time.

redbeard

Posted 23 April 2012 - 01:46 PM

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Absolutely not.

I think the subscription software or software-as-service trend is not much more than a way to increase revenue with no real benefit to the end user. There are some cases where subscription makes sense but for most stand alone software products it's a gimmick (or worse, a scam) IMO.

This is an unfortunate trend that I think will continue to grow. I've seen several smaller and promising software products fail attempting this model. Maybe a larger company like Adobe can pull it off, I hope not because I think this a business model that brings little value for the end user at a potentially much higher cost over time.

I think it seems that a $49/ year is a cheaper option than purchase the full license and upgrade every time. Am I wrong?

razornole

Posted 23 April 2012 - 03:02 PM

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Absolutely not.

I think the subscription software or software-as-service trend is not much more than a way to increase revenue with no real benefit to the end user. There are some cases where subscription makes sense but for most stand alone software products it's a gimmick (or worse, a scam) IMO.

This is an unfortunate trend that I think will continue to grow. I've seen several smaller and promising software products fail attempting this model. Maybe a larger company like Adobe can pull it off, I hope not because I think this a business model that brings little value for the end user at a potentially much higher cost over time.

I think it seems that a $49/ year is a cheaper option than purchase the full license and upgrade every time. Am I wrong?

I think that it is $49/month not a year. That's roughly $600.00 a year. I upgrade my software about once every three years, unless there is something that must have. I just don't see the benefits.

I think that I just read that Illustrator was supporting 64bit. That means it is time to upgrade and that is only $250.00. Still beats $600.00 a year for a bunch of stuff that I don't use.

kru

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Adam Wilbert

Posted 23 April 2012 - 03:07 PM

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I'm actually really excited about this. Adobe is even offering a discount to anyone that owns CS3 or above for the first year, just $29 / month. As someone that always upgrades, every version, this is a complete steal! The standard (full price) Creative Cloud subscription at $49/mo is slightly more per year than I would have paid for a "Design and Web Premium CS Suite" upgrade, but the inclusion of all of the other software from the Master Collection, plus Lightroom (which I use and has always been outside of the suites at an additional price), plus the iPad apps, plus 20GB cloud storage for sync and files, plus the ability to install PC and Mac versions with the same license... the list goes on and on. I don't see how anyone can think this brings little value to the end user. Unless, of course, you just use Illustrator and nothing else.

And this isn't really "software as a service". This is a license subscription. Software as a Service would be more along the lines of web-apps that you log into or something like that. These are full-download, run on my computer licenses, just like they always have been. In my view, this is simply spreading the cost of software out over the course of the year instead of a lump sum payment. Seems like this is right in line with things like ESRI's maintenance contracts.

So, yeah. Consider my hand raised for day 1. Which I think is early may-ish. I'm really looking forward to 64bit Illustrator.

Posted 23 April 2012 - 05:37 PM

I'm actually really excited about this. Adobe is even offering a discount to anyone that owns CS3 or above for the first year, just $29 / month. As someone that always upgrades, every version, this is a complete steal! The standard (full price) Creative Cloud subscription at $49/mo is slightly more per year than I would have paid for a "Design and Web Premium CS Suite" upgrade, but the inclusion of all of the other software from the Master Collection, plus Lightroom (which I use and has always been outside of the suites at an additional price), plus the iPad apps, plus 20GB cloud storage for sync and files, plus the ability to install PC and Mac versions with the same license... the list goes on and on. I don't see how anyone can think this brings little value to the end user. Unless, of course, you just use Illustrator and nothing else.

And this isn't really "software as a service". This is a license subscription. Software as a Service would be more along the lines of web-apps that you log into or something like that. These are full-download, run on my computer licenses, just like they always have been. In my view, this is simply spreading the cost of software out over the course of the year instead of a lump sum payment. Seems like this is right in line with things like ESRI's maintenance contracts.

So, yeah. Consider my hand raised for day 1. Which I think is early may-ish. I'm really looking forward to 64bit Illustrator.

Well, as I wrote above, there are probably some cases where it makes sense and a power user like yourself is probably one of them. I use AI, PS, and Acrobat Pro daily with some InDesign from time to time. I'm certainly not just an AI user but I am like Kru who only upgrades as necessary which is never more than every other version. This may make sense for power users or as an enterprise subscription but for the average user I think this is likely not a net gain.

I agree its not SAS, but I think this is closer to subscription software than a maintenance contract. Maintenance usually provides major upgrades and support to software owners not the software access itself. Obviously Adobe still offers the packaged software so there is an option to not participate but I see in their choice of a subscription rather than just a maintenance contract the opportunity (in fact the incentive) to eventually switch fully to subscription software. It may be a semi paranoid perspective on this but in general I am not comfortable with not owning my software outright and being forced to pay a subscription for products I depend on for my lively hood.

Posted 23 April 2012 - 05:48 PM

I think it seems that a $49/ year is a cheaper option than purchase the full license and upgrade every time. Am I wrong?

As already mentioned, it's per month not year and adds up to quite a bit more than I pay for upgrades right now. $49 per month with a yearly subscription (contract) or $79/ month to be contract free. That's roughly $600 to $950 per year. I'm still comfortably using my Design Standard CS4 I bought a bought 4 years ago as a student. Price was around $300 I think, spread out over 4 years (longer than I would normally avoid an upgrade) thats only $6.25 per month! No thank you to Adobe subscriptions.

rudy

Posted 23 April 2012 - 06:45 PM

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I could see it from both sides but I would think that a student licence precludes one from using it for commercial purposes . . . I don't know. I don't have the licence in front of me. $49 a month does add up but if you're a power user that upgrades with each release and want to access that licence from multiple machine (PCs and Macs) it makes sense. How many other software companies are going to go this way?

Adam Wilbert

Posted 23 April 2012 - 07:39 PM

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Adobe's student license actually has always been very specific about the fact that commercial work was in fact allowed. The student license also is eligible for the upgrade pricing discounts to full, non-student licenses. Not sure if that still applies to the student / teacher pricing tier for Creative Cloud though. In fact, I can't find anything about upgrade-pricing eligibility if one should later decide to drop out of the Creative Cloud option and back to a regular license. Something to think about.

David, I wouldn't call myself a power user necessarily. And I'm certainly not going to say upgrading every version makes the most fiscal sense either. But I'm addicted to newest-and-best, and they pretty much had me at "continuous feature rollout." It's probably more of an illness. Like spending too much money on new camera lenses. Clearly, you make better business decisions than I do.

The other thing about this that hasn't been mentioned is the option to essentially hop-on/hop-off contract. I see that as a huge plus for certain workflows that might get by just fine with Illustrator most of the time. But occasionally there is that one contract that needs a bit of Photoshop or Flash or AfterEffects or whatever. From what I've read on John Nack's blog, this is all about giving additional options and there are no plans to take anything away. Who knows what'll happen though. I'm usually super paranoid about these types of big moves too (I'm surprised there hasn't been a "Windows 8, WTF?" thread here yet!) but I just don't see it here.*

Posted 23 April 2012 - 11:25 PM

Jacques Gélinas

Posted 25 June 2012 - 07:53 PM

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Not sure if this was mentioned, but as of next year you won't be able to get the upgrade price if you are behind more then one version... e.g. forget about getting Illustator CS6 if you have Illustrator CS4. It will be full price.

So maybe the 49$ (US) a month is going to be 'forced' upon us indirectly.

In the end, the retailer suggested a volume license (since I do MAPublisher support and training, I have to have both Windows and Mac versions), for which there was an upgrade path from one of my original suites. So it's a one-time fee, but it looks like I came out on top since it's for both platforms.

rudy

Posted 27 June 2012 - 07:15 AM

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Adobe's student license actually has always been very specific about the fact that commercial work was in fact allowed. The student license also is eligible for the upgrade pricing discounts to full, non-student licenses. Not sure if that still applies to the student / teacher pricing tier for Creative Cloud though. In fact, I can't find anything about upgrade-pricing eligibility if one should later decide to drop out of the Creative Cloud option and back to a regular license. Something to think about.

I ended up purchasing the student version. I happened to be taking a completely unrelated course in project management from a local university - one course, part-time - but I was still eligible for the student pricing - a significant savings! Thanks for the tip.